Well, it's about time—isn't it? For a band that's been together since 2009 (at least that's when drummer Bim Ditson thinks they first formed in Eugene) and gigging around town regularly for years, And And And's debut record—The Failure—finally drops this Tuesday, January 13 via Party Damage Records.
Singer and guitarist Nathan Baumgartner "half-jokingly" titled the record as such, but the truth is that he was going through a lot of, well, shit that undoubtedly inspired The Failure. "I wrote pretty much all of the songs on this album in the bedroom I slept in as a kid" in Reedsport, Ore., Baumgartner writes. "The circumstances that brought me back home [a combination of unemployment, a custody battle and depression] were the primary influences on the lyrical content."
But in the long run, the band had his back—"These guys never bailed on the band and kept it going even when I was not always available"—for which Baumgartner feels "supremely lucky to be able to play in a band with my best friends," including Ditson, bassist Jonathan Sallas, guitarist Berg Radin and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Wiggans.
After years of putting "emotion over attitude" (and 10 days of drinking, skateboarding and recording at Singing Serpent Studios in San Diego), And And And is elated to share their first record with the world because Baumgartner would prefer to "just let the songs tell the story."
You may have already heard the lead single—the roaring "A Real Case of the Blues" (watch the video below)—from the 10-track effort, which is anything but a failure. And now's your chance to hear a second offering of AAA's brand of grungy, aggressive, uneasy rock that breathes and beats with authenticity in the form of "Animals"—"a nihilistic power ballad concerning my belief that human consciousness is a cosmic mistake," Ditson writes. "Animals do not have to go to fucking therapy."
The balladry goes by all too quickly, but don't worry: The band are just warming you up for their album release show at the Doug Fir on Thursday, January 15 with Hosannas and Ah God.
